It took my daughter Serena
a long time to decide just what she wanted to be when she grew up, whereas,
my son was only four when he decided that he would be a dinosaur scientist.
It wasn’t until she was seven that Serena realized that her destiny in life
was to be a folksinger. Happily she played the chords to her favorite song,
“Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” on my guitar.

Then came the Presidential
campaign of 1992. Serena was eight. She sat rapt before the television listening
intently to the speeches of both parties. After the summer’s two national conventions,
she realized that it wasn’t a folksinger that she wanted to be after all ...
it was a folksinging Senator. By late fall, having heard all three Presidential
debates, Serena was going to be President.

Her barrage of questions
about how she could learn to be President and conversations about what politicians
do kept up for so long that my husband and I were convinced she really might
go into politics when she was older.

In the late spring of this
year, Serena went out with her father to pick early snow peas from the garden.
Coming inside with her basket of peas, she told me she was very interested in
gardening. “That’s wonderful,” I replied. “You’ll be a big help to Daddy.”

Overnight Serena’s interest
must really have taken root, because the next day she asked me if I thought
the gardens at the White House were too big for the President to tend, since
the President is such a busy person. “Yes,” I replied. “I’m sure there’s
a staff of people who take care of the White House gardens.” “Well then, I won’t
be a gardening President,” she told me. “I’ll just be a gardener.”

The desire to be a gardener
was still but a tender shoot when Serena took a piano lesson—just a few weeks
after picking those peas—and realized it was a pianist she wanted to be!

Serena is at such a wonderful
stage of life! Interested in everything, trying everything out, she sees the
world as her plum, ripe for the picking. She believes in herself, as we believe
in her. And since what people believe largely determines what they do, it is
critically important for parents of blind children (and other adults in the
child’s life) to have positive beliefs about blindness and what blind people
can do.

If we are told (in a journal
article or by a teacher of the blind, say) that blind children usually do not
or cannot learn how to do a certain task, and if we come to believe this, chances
are we will not give our child the experience or opportunity anyone would
need in order to do this task. And chances are the child won’t learn to do it.
Imagine, though, if we—and our blind children—were never told that blind people
couldn’t accomplish a certain thing. Imagine what the results might be if everyone
believed that blind people could do anything they wanted to! Well, I believe
this—and attending National Federation of the Blind National Conventions has
solidified this belief for me.* It is this belief which guides the way I bring
up my daughter.

Sometimes in the literature
I read the phrase “accepting the child’s blindness.” That word acceptance always
causes me concern; what different people mean by acceptance can be entirely
opposite things. To some, “accepting the child’s blindness” means accepting—or
coming to believe—that because the child is blind, there will be limits to what
the child can do, limits to what he or she can understand, limits to what he
or she can learn. (They often refer to these beliefs as “being realistic.”)
It is easy to see what the effects of that kind of thinking will be.

When I consider the term
“accepting the child’s blindness,” I think about accepting that the child is
blind, learning and coming to believe that blindness need not stop the child
from achieving what he or she wishes, and allowing, indeed insisting, that the
child learn the alternative techniques of blindness that will enable him or
her to achieve the desired results!

Find a way, parents. Keep
all the doors open. Glory in the exhilarating feeling of watching a child look
toward the future and see only possibilities.

*Post
Script: At national conventions of the National Federation of the Blind there
are opportunities to meet blind people from many walks of life. My husband and
I know personally or have heard speak, a blind high school teacher, college
professor, mathematician, scientist, car body mechanic, industrial arts teacher,
foreign service officer, engineer, a high-performance engine builder, and a
man who has sailed solo in races from San Francisco to Hawaii. Attendance at
national conventions has enabled us to see firsthand that blindness does not
have to stop people from achieving what they want to achieve. This knowledge
gets passed along to our daughter and, equally as important, to the teachers
and other professionals who work with her. Go to a national convention! It might
turn out to be the most important thing you do for your blind child’s future.